The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
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The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
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Narrated by:
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Lin-Manuel Miranda
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Karen Olivo
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Written by:
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Junot Díaz
About this listen
Read by Lin-Manuel Miranda, the Tony Award®-winning creator and star of the musical Hamilton, and Tony Award®-winning actress, Karen Olivo. This brilliant narration adds another layer of lyricism and depth to this Pulitzer Prize-winning classic novel.
Things have never been easy for Oscar, a sweet but disastrously overweight, lovesick Dominican ghetto nerd. From his home in New Jersey, where he lives with his old-world mother and rebellious sister, Oscar dreams of becoming the Dominican J. R. R. Tolkien and, most of all, of finding love. But he may never get what he wants, thanks to the Fuku: the curse that has haunted Oscar's family for generations, dooming them to prison, torture, tragic accidents, and, above all, ill-starred love. Oscar, still waiting for his first kiss, is just its most recent victim.
Diaz immerses us in the tumultuous life of Oscar and the history of the family at large, rendering with genuine warmth and dazzling energy, humor, and insight the Dominican-American experience - and, ultimately, the endless human capacity to persevere in the face of heartbreak and loss. A true literary triumph, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao confirms Junot Diaz as one of the best and most exciting voices of our time.
©2007 Junot Díaz (P)2016 Penguin AudioYou may also enjoy...
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What the critics say
"An extraordinarily vibrant book that's fueled by adrenaline-powered prose... A book that decisively establishes [Diaz] as one of contemporary fiction's most distinctive and irresistible new voices." (Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times)
"Diaz finds a miraculous balance. He cuts his barn-burning comic-book plots (escape, ruin, redemption) with honest, messy realism, and his narrator speaks in a dazzling hash of Spanish, English, slang, literary flourishes, and pure virginal dorkiness." (New York Magazine)
"Genius...a story of the American experience that is giddily glorious and hauntingly horrific. And what a voice Yunior has. His narration is a triumph of style and wit, moving along Oscar de Leon's story with cracking, down-low humor, and at times expertly stunning us with heart-stabbing sentences. That Diaz's novel is also full of ideas, that [the narrator's] brilliant talking rivals the monologues of Roth's Zuckerman - in short, that what he has produced is a kick-ass (and truly, that is just the word for it) work of modern fiction - all make The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao something exceedingly rare: a book in which a new America can recognize itself, but so can everyone else." (San Francisco Chronicle)
What listeners say about The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 2017-11-22
A most wonderous book
The novel is beautifully and colloquially written. The readers and especially Lin-Manuel Miranda do a fantastic job. I almost cried at the end. Now I want to read more of Diaz!
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Sophie
- 2018-01-21
A masterpiece
I am still trying to come to terms with what I have just heard. I started this book with no expectations and it has pulled me right in, made me care about the characters in a way no book as ever had. The narration by Lin-Manuel Miranda is beyond anything I have heard... a masterpiece, no question.
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3 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- AbdulRaheem Siddiqui
- 2022-08-29
Omg amazing novel and reader!
I honestly thought reading the first chapter that this book would just make me feel sorry for how much a loser Oscar I was but holy crap I was wrong!! Honestly one of the best books I’ve read! Totally worth the read!
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 2018-09-13
One of the best books I have listened to in a while
Great story made even better with Miranda’s narration. All books should be narrated by Lin-Manuel Miranda #audible1
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4 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 2023-02-14
Amazing trabajo!
I love the narration work by L. M. M.
Beautiful storytelling. I love the humor of the Spanglish lenguage:)
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Lanth
- 2022-03-18
lacklustre
lacklustre teen romance story with lots of superficial culture thrown in for flavour. mildly annoying readers too
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- eyiyemi Ayadi
- 2023-03-14
Good writer, Bad story
Good writer but it truly never investigates its characters I don't think. a boy with our a father who never thought about his father.... makes no sense to me
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